Brussels, 26/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Council and the European Parliament reached agreement in conciliation on the proposed regulation establishing a transitory regime applicable to lorries transiting through Austria. This regulation extends the ecopoints system for the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2006, which was provided for in Austria's accession act, but which expires on 31 December 2003. The agreement, which was reached on Tuesday night, provides for a driving ban within Austria for the most polluting lorries (over 8 points). A quota system and the payment of a charge in line with the level of pollution will apply to intermediate vehicles (6 to 8 points), whereas the least polluting lorries (fewer than 5 points) can circulate without restriction in the country. The Commission will continue to manage the allocation of quotas, also for the future Member States once they join the Union. These quotas will decrease by 5% a year: they will be 6,593,487 ecopoints in 2004, 6,246,462 in 2005, and 5,866,436 in 2006.
This result was immediately welcomed by CDU MEP Markus Ferber, who criticised the attitude of the Austrian government, described as not particularly constructive, and talked about a "solution for the protection of people". Austrian Green Johannes Voggenhuber, however, described it as a "fiasco". He regretted his country's protectionist attitude, and that the European Union continued to put the freedom of movement ahead of the fundamental rights of the protection of the environment and of health.